TP-LINK Archer C50 v6.x

multiple revisions of this device, use caution

abgn+ac (AC1200)
AC1200 Wireless Dual Band Router
Homepage	Product page
Support	Support page
Wikipedia	TP-Link
3rd Party Firmware
dd-wrt	Status Unknown
OpenWrt	Supported
Tomato any flavor	Incompatible
Gargoyle	Status Unknown
Platform
Brand • Model • Rev	TP-LINK Archer C50 v6.x
FCC ID	none specified
Type	wireless router
Series	Archer C50
CPU1 Y	MediaTek MT7628
CPU1 Type	MIPS 24KEc
CPU1 Speed	580 MHz
Flash1 Chip	XMC XM25QH64C
Flash1 Size	8 MiB 8,388,608 B <br />65,536 Kib <br />8,192 KiB <br />64 Mib <br />0.00781 GiB <br /> (SPI NOR)
RAM1 Size	64 MiB 67,108,864 B <br />524,288 Kib <br />65,536 KiB <br />512 Mib <br />0.0625 GiB <br /> (DDR2 512Mbits)
RAM1 Chip	ESMT M14D5121632A x 1
ETH chip1	MediaTek MT7628
Switch	MediaTek MT7628
Ethernet Port Count	1-100MbE-WAN 4-100MbE-LAN
Wired Standard	IEEE 802.3i/3u
802dot11 OUI: none specified
Stock bootloader	U-Boot
Expansion IF types	none specified
Serial Port (UART)	yes, 3.3V TTL, (115200 8N1)
Other
3rd Party Firmware Support	OpenWrt • (List | Dev | DLs)
Physical
Buttons	WPS/WiFi, RESET
LEDs/Color	Power, WiFi2, WiFi5, LAN, WAN, WPS
Radio 1
Chip1	MediaTek MT7628
Wireless interface OUI	none specified
Antenna Connector Type	none specified
MIMO status	2x2:2
Wireless Standard	IEEE 802.11b/g/n
802.11n	up to 600 Mbps
802.11g	up to 54 Mbps
802.11b	up to 11 Mbps
WiFi Operating Frequency	2.4 GHz
Radio 2
Chip1	MediaTek MT7613
Wireless interface OUI	none specified
Antenna Connector Type	none specified
MIMO status	2x2:2
Wireless Standard	IEEE 802.11a/n/ac
802.11ac	up to 867 Mbps
802.11n	up to 300 Mbps
802.11a	up to 54 Mbps
WiFi Operating Frequency	5 GHz
CPU1 brand Radio1 chip1 brand Radio2 chip1 brand TP-LINK Archer C50 v1.x MediaTek MediaTek MediaTek TP-LINK Archer C50 v2.x Qualcomm Atheros Qualcomm Atheros Qualcomm Atheros TP-LINK Archer C50 v3.x MediaTek MediaTek MediaTek TP-LINK Archer C50 v4.x MediaTek MediaTek MediaTek TP-LINK Archer C50 v5.x MediaTek MediaTek MediaTek TP-LINK Archer C50 v6.x MediaTek MediaTek MediaTek

For a list of all currently documented MediaTek chipsets with specifications, see MediaTek.

For a list of all currently documented TP-LINK devices with specifications, see TP-LINK.

• 300 Mbps - 2SS 2.4GHz 802.11n (40MHz chan.),

• 867 Mbps - 2SS 5GHz 802.11ac (80MHz chan.) = AC1200 class

Flashing

Flashing OpenWrt

On the OpenWrt ToH (techdata entry)

Target: ramips
Subtarget: mt76x8
Package architecture: mipsel_24kc
Supported Since Commit
Support started version: 24.10.0
Current supported version: 25.12.2

Unsupported Functions:
DFS
LAN Hardware: MediaTek MT7628
WLAN Hardware: MediaTek MT7628, MediaTek MT7613
WLAN Comment: MIMO 2x2:2 for each band
Installation method(s):
see git-commit
Recovery method(s):
see git-commit

git • >>

ramips: Add support for TP-Link Archer C50 v6 (CA/EU/RU) This adds support for the TP-Link Archer C50 v6 (CA/EU/RU). (The ES variant is a rebranded Archer C54 and NOT supported.) CPU: MediaTek MT7628 (580MHz) RAM: 64M DDR2 FLASH: 8M SPI WiFi: 2.4GHz 2x2 MT7628 b/g/n integrated WiFi: 5GHz 2x2 MT7613 a/n/ac ETH: 1x WAN 4x LAN LED: Power, WiFi2, WiFi5, LAN, WAN, WPS BTN: WPS/WiFi, RESET UART: Near ETH ports, 115200 8n1, TP-Link pinout Create Factory image -------------------- As all installation methods require a U-Boot to be integrated into the image (and we do not ship one with the image). We are not able to create an image in the OpenWRT build-process. Download a TP-Link image for your device variant (CA/EU or RU) from their website and a OpenWRT sysupgrade image for the device and build yourself a factory image like following: TP-Link image: tpl.bin OpenWRT sysupgrade image: owrt.bin > dd if=tpl.bin of=boot.bin bs=131584 count=1 > cat owrt.bin >> boot.bin Installing via Web-UI --------------------- Upload the boot.bin via TP-Links firmware upgrade tool in the web-interface. Installing via Recovery ----------------------- Activate Web-Recovery by beginning the upgrade Process with a Firmware-Image from TP-Link. After starting the Firmware Upgrade, wait ~3 seconds (When update status is switching to 0%), then disconnect the power supply from the device. Upgrade flag (which activates Web-Recovery) is written before the OS-image is touched and removed after write is succesfull, so this procedure should be safe. Plug the power back in. It will come up in Recovery-Mode on 192.168.0.1. When active, all LEDs but the WPS LED are off. Remeber to assign yourself a static IP-address as DHCP is not active in this mode. The boot.bin can now be uploaded and flashed using the web-recovery. Installing via TFTP ------------------- Prepare an image like following (Filenames from factory image steps apply here) > dd if=/dev/zero of=tp_recovery.bin bs=196608 count=1 > dd if=tpl.bin of=tmp.bin bs=131584 count=1 > dd if=tmp.bin of=boot.bin bs=512 skip=1 > cat boot.bin >> tp_recovery.bin > cat owrt.bin >> tp_recovery.bin Place tp_recovery.bin in root directory of TFTP server and listen on 192.168.0.66/24. Connect router LAN ports with your computer and power up the router while pressing the reset button. The router will download the image via tftp and after ~1 Minute reboot into OpenWRT. U-Boot CLI ---------- U-Boot CLI can be activated by holding down '4' on bootup. Dual U-Boot ----------- This is the first TP-Link MediaTek device to feature a split-uboot design. The first (factory-uboot) provides recovery via TFTP and HTTP, jumping straight into the second (firmware-uboot) if no recovery needs to be performed. The firmware-uboot unpacks and executed the kernel. Web-Recovery ------------ TP-Link integrated a new Web-Recovery like the one on the Archer C7v4 / TL-WR1043v5. Stock-firmware sets a flag in the "romfile" partition before beginning to write and removes it afterwards. If the router boots with this flag set, bootloader will automatically start Web-recovery and listens on 192.168.0.1. This way, the vendor-firmware or an OpenWRT factory image can be written. By doing the same while performing sysupgrade, we can take advantage of the Web-recovery in OpenWRT. It is important to note that Web-Recovery is only based on this flag. It can't detect e.g. a crashing kernel or other means. Once activated it won't boot the OS before a recovery action (either via TFTP or HTTP) is performed. This recovery-mode is indicated by an illuminated WPS-LED on boot.

Pictures

Retail Images

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User Images

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  XMC 25QH64C SPI-NOR Flash
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  ESMT M14D5121632A RAM
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  Mediatek MT7628AN CPU
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  UART Pinout